Deacon Edward Aiken, son of Nathaniel & Margaret (Cochran) Aiken was b. 2 Sep 1727 Londonderry, Rockingham Co, NH. He married 25 Jan 1752 to Margaret Woodburn, daughter of John Woodburn, who emigrated from Ireland to Londonderry NH. She was half-sister to John Woodburn one of the earliest settlers of Kent Vermont, that later became Windham, VT, and of David Woodburn who married Margaret Clark and was the maternal grandfather of Horace Greeley, the once famous editor of the New York Tribune. Regarding Deacon Edward Aiken--as early as the spring of 1772, and possibly in the preceding year, he was in Kent, Vermont busy clearing his "pitched" farm and erecting a log house to which to move his family. While engaged in this work he fell ill and his hired man (Joseph Oughterson) sent word to his wife at their New Hampshire home as to the Deacon's condition. She came to him on horseback, it is said with her youngest child in her arms, traversing much of the distance by indistinct paths marked by blazed trees. She was the first woman among those early settlers to take up household duties in the township, and, her husband having recovered, soon returned to Londonderry, NH. His was the first log house in that part of Kent VT (later becoming Windham) and he erected the first frame house in that territory. When he brought his family to this new home in 1773, he came with a daughter of 12 years, and his son Peter, aged 10, on foot, while his wife and some or all the other children, assisted by Joseph Oughterson, came on horseback with bedding and other indispensable articles strapped upon the horses. Deacon Aiken was a large, strong man in every sense, of impressive presence, sterling character, and a natural leader of men. He was the first Town Clerk of Kent and the first representative from the town to the Vermont Legislature, holding that office by successive reelections from 1778 to 1789, and again from 1791 to 1794, the town being unrepresented in 1790. Previous to that time he had represented the people of Kent in various meetings and conventions during the New York controversies, and was a member of the Convention that adopted the first Constitution of the new State, at Windsor in 1777, though the records do not show that he was present and voting at the adoption of that instrument. In 1780 he was one of three person authorized by the Vermont Legislature to sell and convey, for the use of the State, Colonel Rogers' lands in Kent, which was then, for the first time, named Londonderry. He was one of the delegates to the Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States on Vermont's admission to the Union and signed the "ratification." He died in 1808 in the house he had built on the homestead farm, and his body was buried in the little public cemetery lying near and in view of that home.
(Addison Edward Cudworth, The History with Genealogical Sketches of Londonderry, p.112-113)

Note: Deacon Edward Aiken born 1727 in Londonderry, NH is the son of Nathaniel Aiken and Margaret Cochran, and grandson of Edward Aiken and Barbara Edwards. He married Margaret Woodburn. Capt Edward Aiken born 1728 in Londonderry, NH, the son of William Aiken and Jenat Wilson, and married to Martha unknown, is often confused with Deacon Edward. Dea. Edward and Capt. Edward were cousins, both very prominent, and it is difficult to distinguish the activities of the two men.
Contributor: S.K. Mach (48195520)